A Muslim man accused of sexually assaulting his stepdaughter said his religion prevented him from hurting her, a court heard.

The stepdad, who has denied sexually assaulting the 4-year-old at their family home in Cambridgeshire, said that being a Muslim meant he could not touch her when she was naked, even while bathing her.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, denies assaulting a child under 13 by penetration, with the act being sexual, on or before August 5 last year when the child was taken to Addenbrooke’s with internal and external injuries.

In a series of police interview transcripts read to the jury, the court heard how the man’s lodger had heard the girl screaming when being showered by her stepdad.

But, during a series of police interviews, the stepdad said he would only bathe her once a month and did not touch her at all while doing so.

Speaking to the police in August, he said: “Because of my religion, you cannot see or touch any part of her or any naked woman. It may burn your eyes.”

The child was found to have bite marks on her cheek and her right arm. The defendant claimed in the August interview that the marks were caused by her brother and an allergic reaction to medication respectively.

But, after experts matched the bite on her arm to his teeth, he told police in October that he had given it as a demonstration to the girl.

He had said: “She did not weep. I would never hurt her in my life.”

The jury heard that the man claimed that he had never beaten the girl and only disciplined her and her 7-year-old brother by withholding treats.

After the stepdad’s arrest, the two children were placed with foster carers.

The court heard that the child had told her foster carers her “daddy” had hurt her in her genital area and on her knee, where doctors had previously found a bruise.

He again denied hurting and sexually assaulting her, arguing that it could not have been him she was referring to as she only ever referred to him as “papa” or by his first name.